Issue of bedoons nears resolution

KUWAIT: The issue of bedoons seems to be nearing a decisive solution following more than four decades of arguments, well-informed sources told Al-Qabas daily, noting that the original nationalities of over 90 percent of bedoons have been identified, and thus they will no longer be considered as stateless. On the other hand, the sources stressed that those who actually deserve Kuwaiti citizenship are much closer to getting it following years of injustice they have suffered because of pretenders and fake bedoons.

The sources added that those who do not deserve Kuwaiti citizenship will be offered a reasonable settlement by granting them permanent residency and decent lives in Kuwait. However, the sources warned against taking the issue lightly, because of security threats that entail the government’s swift action to resolve the problem, especially since certain countries have ‘implanted’ their nationals in Kuwait and are refusing to take them back or grant them any sort of identification after their true nationalities were discovered.

Meanwhile, chairman of the central agency for illegal residents’ affairs Saleh Al-Fadhalah said the total number of bedoons dropped from 220,000 before Aug 2, 1990 to only 117,000 in 1992, noting that the agency tracked the relationship between those deported and their relatives who still live in Kuwait, and that this helped discover the original citizenships of many people pretending to be bedoons.

Fadhalah added that the legal statuses of 90 percent of the 88,000 bedoons registered with the agency have been determined. He also noted that the agency exerts endless efforts to provide bedoons with decent services. Fadhalah said a special committee had been formed with elements from various state bodies to study the dossiers of bedoons included in the 1965 census pending granting them citizenship. – Al-Qabas